S. Sudan rivals sign aid delivery deal

Monday, May 5, 2014

South Sudan's warring rivals on Monday signed an agreement to open "safe corridors" for the delivery of humanitarian aid to thousands of displaced people in areas of the country hardest-hit by recent violence.

ADDIS ABABA – South Sudan's warring rivals on Monday signed an agreement to open "safe corridors" for the delivery of humanitarian aid to thousands of displaced people in areas of the country hardest-hit by recent violence.

The deal will allow international aid agencies to deliver food assistance and medical care to refugees inside the country.

"We signed to respect the agreement," chief government negotiator Taban Deng Gai, who signed the deal, said.

Under the terms of the deal, humanitarian aid will be allowed into South Sudan – from Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – in hopes of reaching thousands of displaced South Sudanese.

The agreement came two days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Ethiopia and South Sudan to pressure the warring camps to resolve their differences peacefully.

South Sudan has been shaken by violence since last December, when President Salva Kiir accused sacked vice president Riek Machar of leading a failed coup attempt against his regime.

The conflict has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, with the U.N. estimating that some one million South Sudanese have been displaced by the violence.